Skip to content
Curated playlist

Toho animated films

  • My Neighbor TotoroEight animators finished My Neighbor Totoro in just eight months. They spent one full month on a tadpole scene alone.
  • Tales from Earthsea (film)Hayao Miyazaki never looked at his son Gorō's storyboard for Tales from Earthsea.
  • Spirited AwayIn Spirited Away, a girl's parents turn into pigs in an abandoned resort town. Ten-year-old Chihiro is left alone.
  • Macross: Do You Remember Love?In the 1984 film Macross: Do You Remember Love?, a song ends a war. Human music weakens the giant alien Zentradi army.
  • The Cat ReturnsThe Cat Returns began as a 20-minute short for a theme park that canceled it. Ghibli made it a feature.
  • The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (film)The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was the most expensive Japanese film ever made. It opened in Japan in November 2013.
  • Princess MononokeHayao Miyazaki spent seventeen years getting Princess Mononoke made.
  • Only Yesterday (1991 film)Ghibli's color team spent roughly a year hunting one shade of red for Only Yesterday.
  • Pom PokoStudio Ghibli's Pom Poko ends on a golf course, where a grassy clearing is all that remains of an ancient forest.
  • PonyoMiyazaki shut down Studio Ghibli's computer graphics section to make Ponyo. He wanted the film hand-drawn.
  • When Marnie Was There (film)The director of When Marnie Was There first turned the film down.
  • Whisper of the HeartWhisper of the Heart begins when a girl sees the same name on every library book she borrows.
  • ArriettyA handwritten envelope led a French musician to score Studio Ghibli's Arrietty.
  • The Wind RisesIn The Wind Rises, a boy with weak eyes builds planes instead of flying them. It follows engineer Jiro Horikoshi.
  • Akira (1988 film)Akira opened in Japan on the same date its story says Tokyo was destroyed. Otomo chose that symmetry on purpose.
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen TrainDemon Slayer: Mugen Train topped the 2020 worldwide box office. It was the first non-American film to do so.
  • Mary and the Witch's FlowerMary and the Witch's Flower was the first film from Studio Ponoc, made after its director left Studio Ghibli.
  • Porco RossoIn the film Porco Rosso, an Italian war hero has become a pig. Nobody in the story explains why.
  • The Boy and the HeronThe Boy and the Heron reached Japanese theaters with one poster and no trailer.
  • The Red TurtleIn The Red Turtle, every raft a shipwrecked man builds is smashed by something unseen. It has no spoken dialogue.
  • Pokémon: The First MovieSo many kids skipped school for Pokémon: The First Movie that the day got the nickname Pokéflu.
  • Your NameYour Name began in a fishing village wrecked by a tsunami. Director Makoto Shinkai visited Yuriage in July 2011.
  • Howl's Moving Castle (film)A curse turns Sophie into a 90-year-old woman, and she becomes bolder.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (film)Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a 2021 Japanese animated dark fantasy film, and its first audience came at midnight. About 15,000 people watched it at the earliest public screenings on opening day, spread across 58 screens. Theaters had planned to…
  • Royal Space Force: The Wings of HonnêamiseA Bandai president liked a film pitch because he could not tell what it was about. It became Royal Space Force.

Queue